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Ice, Ice, Baby. All right stop, collaborate and listen. Whenever I hear this song (which isn’t that often), I always think about that scene in 13 Going on 30 where newly-transformed Jennifer Garner is greeted by a striptease and cheesy dancing by her boyfriend to the chants of “Ice, Ice, Baby…” Why that scene? ‘Cause cheesy dancing is what I’m all about.

Now…on another relatively separate note:

Luckily enough, my parents are very supportive of my irrational urge to bake at any and all hours of the day (and night). This is mostly because I’ve devised a way to lure them into a false state of “okay-ness” by always making sure to bake some of their favorite cookies. One of them is a crispy almond cookie that I’ll spotlight in a future blogpost. Another is a chocolate almond icebox cookie that I’ve found myself making very frequently. Icebox cookies in general are some of the most convenient cookies to make because once you’ve made them, they sit in the freezer until you’re ready to pull them out and bake off a few or the whole roll. They also lend themselves very well to numerous variations. In the past I’ve made them with earl grey tea, dried cranberries, or whatever nuts I have leftover from any other baking adventures and they’ve all turned out gloriously. They’re just so dang versatile and the livin’s easy.

This time I made a classic chocolate and almond combination (for the ‘rents) and a matcha checkerboard version (for the me). Check them out below!

The recipe for these cookies is super quick and easy. The base recipe is a simple butter-based shortbread cookie that can then be adjusted for a variety of different combinations.

To make the chocolate and matcha variations, swap out 1/4 cup of flour for cocoa powder or matcha powder and add in any nuts or chocolate chips right before adding the flour.

The checkerboard pattern is a little more complicated but I’ve dug up a handy little diagram from Vera of Baking Obsession! As you can see, I haven’t quite mastered it yet but I’ll keep you guys updated on my cutting and stacking progress.